Infinite Spirits
by Renix360
Summary: What would happen if a Spirit was to infiltrate the IS Academy in order to hide from the AST? Shido Itsuka has to go undercover as Shiori Itsuka in order to track down and seal her powers. Of course, it's never that simple for Shido when it comes to the Spirits. Contains OC. Rated T just to be safe. Will update when possible.
1. Chapter 1

**This was actually not my idea, though the name of the person it was escapes me right now. This is simply what that person wanted to see, so I decided to go about trying to do it for them.**

**I do not own either Infinite Stratos or Date A Live (but I honestly wish I did). I only own the Technician (including her powers) and whatever other OCs that I wish to add later.**

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**Prologue:**

It's three in the morning at the IS Academy, an all-girls school designated for the training of IS pilots. Of course, that's not completely the case anymore. It used to be that only females were thought to be able to pilot an IS, that is until one male was found to be able to do so. The story begins in his room, from which one could hear an extremely loud, yet still unfamiliar sound coming from somewhere outside of the city.

"What the hell?!" Ichika Orimura said as he was jerked away from his dream. It was three in the morning and Ichika was suddenly awoken by the unknown sound. Ichika usually wasn't a light sleeper, but tonight was different for some reason. It was as if someone somewhere wanted him to be involved in their crazy story right now for some reason or another. Slowly a blue-haired girl could be seen sitting up in the same bed from her slumber as well. "Hmm? What's going on?" Ichika's roommate, Tatenashi Sarashiki, mumbled. "Ichika-kun, it's late. Why are you yelling right now? Go back to sleep." Tatenashi wasn't wrong, it was almost morning, and with how the paper-thin walls of the dorms are he probably woke some of his neighbors with his outburst. "It's nothing, I just heard loud noise is all. It sounded like it was coming from near the city or something." The blue-haired girl sleepily looked over at him and said, "Unless it's something that attacks the school, it can probably wait until morning. Let's just get some sleep," letting out a yawn afterwards. "Hmm, yeah. I guess you're right. Let's go back to sleep then," the boy grudgingly agreed.

With that, they went back to sleep. However, a few seconds later, Ichika woke back up violently, jumping to the floor, and looked questioningly towards his apparent sleeping partner. "What the hell? Tatenashi, what are you doing in my bed?!" Playfully looking up from her attempted slumber, the blue-haired girl replied while tilting her head with a small smile, "What? Don't you want me in your bed my little Ichika-kun?" Ichika's eyebrow twitched as he winced at the thought of any of his friends catching her in bed with him, which isn't unlikely knowing his friends. "NO!" he shouted. Of course, this was met with one of their neighbor's banging on the wall dividing their rooms. "Hey, Orimura! Keep it down! We're trying to sleep over here!" "Sorry!" he said quietly in a sort-of whisper yell.

Backing away from the wall slowly in order to keep from making any more loud noise, Ichika stopped after bumping into something…familiar, "Wife, explain yourself!" Ichika quickly turned around and saw a livid, half naked Laura Bodewig staring at him with her uncovered eye. She had apparently snuck in through the window in order surprise him by getting in bed with him while he was asleep only to find him awake and another girl already there. "Uh, Laura, I can explain," Ichika said, sweating profusely understanding immediately what she was referring to.

Without even thinking about it, the silver-haired German partially deployed the arm of her _Schwarzer Regen _with its Beam Saber deployed and quickly pointed it at the freighted boy. "ICHIKA!" she yelled. Being the only guy at an all-girls school can be absolutely awful sometimes, especially when you have an unwanted harem full of violent girls (that he doesn't know exists).

_-Scene transitions miles away to the familiar airship Fraxinus-_

"So, there was another spirit?" the young commander Kotori Itsuka sleepily inquired. "It appears to be so commander. Our sensors have indicated that the spirit known as 'the Technician' has just appeared near the IS Academy at around three this morning," her vice-commander Kyouhei Kannazuki quickly replied, almost cheerfully.

Still being a young teenager, Kotori was struggling to stay awake at this hour, and she wasn't in the mood for her vice-commander's cheerfulness. In fact, she had thoughts about kicking him in the groin as punishment for it, regardless how much he would actually like for her to do that. However, given the situation at hand, she simply put her bad mood aside and tried to come up with a solution. Normally, she would get her older brother, Shido Itsuka, to go and find the spirit immediately in order to try and keep the AST from getting to her first. However, considering the circumstances of it arriving so early in the morning and how far away the IS Academy is from here, there isn't much they could do about it at this time. Besides, there is still much preparation that needs to be done for this one.

For one thing, while they didn't currently have a lot of data on the Technician, they knew enough to know that she was extremely intelligent and crafty, almost rivaling the Nightmare herself, Kurumi Tokisaki, in that category. Kotori knew well enough that the Technician would try to infiltrate the Academy somehow in order to hide out from the AST as this wasn't her first trip to Earth. If she were to somehow enroll in that school like Kurumi managed to do at Shido's high school, this would make it very difficult to get to her due to the protection given to the students who go there. This would mean that they would need someone to somehow infiltrate the school themselves, and by "someone" she means a certain idiotic brother of hers. They also knew that the Technician's Angel was not that unlike an IS in how it looks and operates, so she would fit in well with the actual IS users (all of this the Technician was no doubt aware of as intelligent as she was).

However, before they could go in there and do this, arrangements would have to be made; a lot of arrangements. Not only would they have to somehow get Shido transferred to the academy, but they would also need to get him a personal IS that would somehow allow him to pilot it. IS frames aren't supposed to work with males (with one famous exception), and there is no use in transferring him to a school to learn how to pilot something that he isn't able to pilot. Luckily, Kotori knows just who to call a favor into in order for that to be arranged. Shido would also likely need to disguise himself as a girl in order to blend in and not attract too much attention.

With that in mind, Kotori quickly unwrapped one of her signature lollipops and stuck it in her mouth. "All right, it looks like we are going after the Technician this time. She's likely to infiltrate the Academy at some point, so we'll need to get someone on the inside ourselves (everyone knew that she meant Shido). There are a lot of arrangements that need to be made in order to make this happen, so get to it, understood?" she commanded. "Understood commander!" everyone else in the room exclaimed. With the room in agreement, she quickly turned to her trusted Analysis Officer, Reine Murasame, and said, "Reine, could you go and wake up Onii-chan for me? There's a lot that he needs to be briefed on in order for this to be a success, so it's best if we start on it right away." Reine simply nodded with her usual exhausted look on her face and replied, "Yes of course, right away," and left to do so.

As soon as Reine left, the young commander quickly whipped out her cell phone and dialed the number of an old acquaintance of hers. "Hello, Shinonono-san? This is Kotori Itsuka…" she said. Immediately after saying that, she quickly moved her phone away from her ear quick enough to miss the explosion of "Oh, Koto-chan! How are you?! What do you need from me sweetie?" An anger bulge quickly appeared on the red-haired commander's head, but she managed to stay calm enough to put the phone back to her ear and say, "Yeah…hey listen, I've got an important favor to ask of you. It's about my brother, Shido…"

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**This is just the set up this story. Hopefully I did a good job of explaining what is all going on so far.**

****I'm going to try and use honorifics as best that I can, but as I'm not used to using them, I may either use them wrong or not use them when I'm supposed to so please forgive me for that if it happens.****

**This is actually my first true fanfic, so please forgive me for any mistakes that I have made so far.**

**To be honest, I'm not sure how long I'm going to make this, or how long it is going to take me to do so. I'm not 100% sure how I want to do this beyond what I have already stated. Also, school and writer's block will likely get in the way, so while I'll try to update when I can, don't expect me to update at regular intervals (though if I can I will try to do so).**

**Anyway, review, follow, and favorite as you please. I'll appreciate any input that you have (as long as it's not too negative obviously).**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry that it took so long to get this one out. It's getting towards the end of the semester for me, so I've been bogged down with a lot of work as of late (awesome time for me to start up a fanfiction, huh?). No promises on the quality of this one due to these time constrains I've been having and the fact that it's longer so it wasn't as easy to proofread.**

**Something that I want to clear up before we begin:**

**This fanfic actually takes place at the end (or at least toward the end) of Season 2 of Infinite Stratos and at the end of Season 1 of Date A Live. On that note, I'm not 100% sure if I'll have Phantom Task as a part of this story or not, but we'll just see how the story progresses to see if they even fit in or not. I know that there will probably be a few Madoka fans out there that want her to be in this, but again I won't make any promises at this point.**

**Also, the AST definitely will make an appearance in this (though you'll love how I'll do it), and they will be equipped with IS units for the purposes of this crossover (I know that the combat realizers are their preferred equipment, so these will almost be a hybrid of the two in a way, at least that's the plan for right now). Now, they won't all have them (keeping with the fact that there are only so many IS units to go around), but some members will have them.**

**I just figured that I should clear that up as I had some people inquire about this.**

**Anyway, on to the story.**

****I do not own either Infinite Stratos or Date A Live (but I honestly wish I did). I only own the Technician (including her powers) and whatever other OCs that I wish to add later.****

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It had been a little over a week since the unexplained noise woke Ichika up so early in the morning (and the misunderstanding that followed). Word around the school was that the sound was actually a space quake that hit just outside of the city. While everyone in the academy was familiar with space quakes, the occurrence was almost foreign to them due them not happening as often in that part of the country, if at all. Of course, as is usually the case, that wasn't the major topic of discussion in class 1-1 today.

"Hold on, another transfer student?" Ichika asked his classmates that had gathered around both his and Charlotte's desks at the front of the classroom. It was the usual group; himself, Houki, Cecilia, Laura, Charlotte, and Rin. "That's what I keep hearing," Rin replied, "apparently she even has her own IS and everything." "Another transfer student with a personal IS? We seem to be getting a lot of those recently." Houki noted, almost jokingly. The rest agreed, but before anything else could be said on the matter, the instructors, Maya Yamada and Chifuyu Orimura, entered the room to begin class. "Okay everybody, take your seats, class is about to begin." Ms. Yamada said in her usual cheerful tone. "Oh, I should probably get going to my class then. See you on the roof for lunch guys!" Rin said as she quickly exited the classroom, at the same time trying to avoid Chifuyu. "Okay, later Rin!" Ichika quickly replied, immediately after which the rest of group dispersed and went to find their seats.

As soon as everyone was seated, Ms. Yamada took her spot at the front of the class and began, "Okay, everyone. I'm sure everyone already knows by now, but we are going to be having a new student joining us today. Please, come and introduce yourself," directing the last part towards someone standing just outside the door. Sure enough, right after she said this, a girl with long, dark blue hair and brown eyes entered the room and made her way beside Ms. Yamada in front of the class. She wore a standard academy uniform with white knee socks and dark brown flats. The only thing really unique about her attire was the green flower hair clip that she wore in her hair. As soon as she found her place beside Ms. Yamada and faced the class, a holographic screen appeared on the board behind her left shoulder revealing her name before she could even say anything.

"Hello, my name is Shi-Shiori Itsuka," The girl stammered out nervously, almost messing her name up. There was a bit of a long pause as the girl simply stared down at the floor, clearly nervous, hoping not to make eye contact with anyone. "…is that all you want to say Itsuka-san?" Ms. Yamada asked, breaking the silence after a few seconds. "Uhh, yes sensei!" the girl replied. She seemed a bit nervous, and rightfully so. You see, not only was she starting a new school, but she also had a secret that needed to stay hidden. The fact that she was not actually a she, but a boy named Shido Itsuka. "Well then, go and take a seat then so we can begin class." Ms. Yamada almost cheerfully, feeling almost sorry for the "girl" that she could see was nervous. "Uhh, yes sensei!" Shido (which is how I will be referring to him as to avoid confusion on my part) said in agreement.

Shido did what he was told, and went and went through the rows of seats and sat in an empty seat to the right of the British Representative, Cecilia Alcott. Shido recognized her, as well as the few others who had their personal IS, as he had been briefed on who they all were prior to coming to the academy. He didn't fully understand why he needed to know who everyone was, but his sister Kotori felt that it was important to know on his mission to find the spirit called "The Technician" and seal her powers. Perhaps it was to help him figure out how get closer to them and gain their trust. If anything was to go wrong during his mission, it would probably pay to have allies with their own machines. Oh, and speaking of Kotori…

_***You need to be more careful next time Shido. I can tell you came close to saying your real name up there.***_ his sister Kotori said to him via earpiece communicator. _"Don't worry, I was just nervous was all. It's no big deal."_ Shido whispered quietly back. _***Yeah, just keep in mind that if they find out that you're a guy, not only will you draw too much unnecessary attention to yourself, but they'll probably think that you're a pervert or something.* **_the young commander warned her older brother.

She had a point. It would probably be different if it was a girl pretending to be a guy, but a guy pretending to be a girl? That is definitely creepier. Class ended up going by relatively fast. Luckily, Shido had already been briefed on the basics of the IS in addition to many of the students, so parts of this he already knew. Before he knew it, it was time for lunch after which they were free for the rest of the day, something of which Shido didn't mind; more time to locate the Spirit. However, before he could get up out of his seat, Shido found himself approached by none other than the only other male in the room, Ichika Orimura, followed by his four female friends that were also in the classroom.

"Hey," Ichika said to get Shido's attention, which he did, "You're the new girl. Shiori Ituska is your name, right?" "Uhh, yeah. Why are you asking?" he replied back nervously, still a little embarrassed about being dressed as a girl in the first place. "Well, since you're new here, we just decided to introduce ourselves. I'm Ichika Orimura," he said. "I'm Houki Shinonono, it's nice to meet you Ituska-san," the girl with the long ponytail said with a respectful bow. Shido quickly noted how she actually looked quite similar to Tohka, the first Spirit that he captured. Immediately after that, the blond-haired Caucasian girl that Shido recognized as Cecilia decided to speak up after clearing her throat, "Well, I guess I should introduce myself as well. I am the British Representative, Cecilia Alcott. Of course, you no doubt knew that already knowing my family's reputation." Everyone in the group could only sweat-drop by that. Then silver-haired girl he recognized as Laura spoke up, "I am Laura Bodewig," she said with her usual serious tone, arms crossed and eyes closed. After a quick few seconds, the girl he recognized as Charlotte decided to speak, "Don't mind zem, zey are just always like zat. Zey are actually quite nice once you get to know zem, oui?" She noted. "Oh, and I am Charlotte Dunios. I am very happy to be meeting you, Ituska-san," she added. "Good to meet you all as well, but please call me Shiori," said the blue-haired cross-dresser. "Sure, feel free to call us by our first names as well, it's only fair to you that way." Ichika said, getting a quick agreement from the others. "Okay, will do." Shido replied.

"Oh Shiori, we were actually wondering if you wanted to come eat lunch on the roof with us since don't really know anyone else yet," Houki quickly chimed in after their introductions. "Yeah, we're actually meeting one other friend up there, but I'm sure she won't mind if you join us as well," Ichika quickly noted. After a brief consideration of this, Shido quickly answered, "Uhh, sure…I'd be happy to, I guess." "Awesome, the more the merrier!" Ichika said in his usual cheerful voice, and with that the group made their way up to the roof. There they were met by a girl that Shido recognized instantly as Rin, whose hairstyle actually reminded Shido a little bit of his sister Kotori.

"It's about time you guys got here! What took you so long?" Rin said in a slightly irritated tone. "Oh, sorry about that Rin! We just decided to introduce ourselves to the new girl, and thought that it would be a good idea to let her eat lunch with us since she is new and all," Ichika replied. Rin took a quick glance at "her" and started to feel sorry for the nervous looking "girl." "Well, I guess that's okay," the Chinese girl sighed back. "Well, I guess I should introduce myself as well then. My name is Lingyin Huang, but you can call me Rin," She said to Shido. "Okay, Rin. I'm Shiori Itsuka, but just call me Shiori," he said with a small laugh to keep in character. "Well, now that that is out of the way, let's say go ahead and eat? I'm starving!" Ichika inquired, and with that everyone agreed and sat in a circle to eat.

Everyone pulled out their well-prepared bentos (or a basket of sandwiches in Cecilia's case) and began to eat. Luckily Shido had actually prepared his own bento before coming to school that morning, so he was able to eat right along with them. The meal was for the most part uneventful except for the girls wanting Ichika to try the food they had prepared that morning (a few of them mentioning that they just _happened_ to have more than they could eat). It was pretty easy for Shido to realize the girls' affections for the guy, though he seemed to be either ignorant of the fact or was trying his best not to acknowledge it on purpose.

This went along for a few minutes before Shido decided to ask them something. "Oh hey guys, I know that this might sound weird, but I was wondering if there were any more transfer students recently besides just me?" Shido quickly inquired to the group out of the blue, interrupting an argument about whose food Ichika thought was better. "Uhh, what do you mean exactly?" Cecilia quickly asked in confusion. Shido took notice of the slightly confused looks on all of their faces as well. "Well, I mean, has there been anyone else in like, say, the past week or so that could have transferred here as well by any chance?" "Um no, none that we're aware of anyway. We do seem to get more transfer students than normal, but we haven't had any recently besides just you," Ichika noted. "Why did you want to know that?" Houki inquired curiously. A quick scan of the group showed that they were all curious about this as well. "Oh…well I just had a friend that was supposed to be transferring soon as well, and I just curious if she had already done so or not," Shido replied nervously, which seemed to satisfy the group.

Immediately after saying that, Shido whispered into his earpiece, _"Hey Kotori, did you hear that? There have been no recent transfers to the school besides me. What gives? You said that she'd be here!"_

_-Quick scene transition to the Fraxinus-_

"She should have been, it doesn't make any sense," Kotori replied. "She might have gone back to where ever she came from for now, much like Tohka did after her first encounter with the AST," Reine quickly pointed out. "Yes, that's probably right, and knowing her she'll undoubtedly be back soon enough, and she'll be sure to get into the academy," Kotori added. _***Alright, so what do I do until then?***_ Shido inquired. "You'll just have to sit tight and keep going according to plan for now. Well figure out what to do after she shows herself again," Kotori replied.

_-Quick scene transition back to the IS Academy roof-_

"_Alright, I guess I don't have much choice in the matter, do I?" _Shido whispered into his earpiece. _***Of course you do, but we both know that you'll still go through with it, right?* **_Kotori replied back. _"Yeah, you're right…"_Shido grudgingly agreed with a facial expression perfect for his mood (-_-). The realization that he may be stuck at the IS academy as a girl longer than expected is perfectly clear.

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**I told you that this wasn't going to be easy for Shido, didn't I?**

**I realize that I may have played up the angle of him being nervous a little much, but he's not exactly in a situation that he's used to yet, you know? I'm going to try to make it to where he gets less nervous over time, so don't worry about that.**

**My apologies for any grammar or spelling errors. I've been pretty busy these past two weeks and at the same time I've been pretty anxious to get this one out, so I may have jumped the gun on the overall quality of it. I'll be sure to go back and fix any errors that I find to improve the quality wherever I see the need for it.**

**Hopefully this chapter didn't bore you too much. It's just the ever important "getting acquainted" chapter (with a bit of a plot twist of course, lol).**

**It might be a while before I am able to post the next chapter as, like I said, I've just got a lot going on with school right now. It may actually be longer than it took to get this chapter ready to do the next chapter as far as I know, but I'll be sure to get up here as soon as I can, so just be patient!**

**Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed it! Be sure to review, favorite, follow, or whatever. All feedback is appreciated (just nothing flaming or too rude), thanks!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, this chapter ended up taking longer to complete that it should have.**

**My apologies for taking so long on this update. I had a lot to deal with when it came to school since my last update, and for some reason I had a bit of writer's block as well. It also didn't help that I've also been lazy now that it's summer for me. I've also had to revise this chapter more than normal due to it not turning out how I wanted it to originally. Oh well, the update is here now. Hopefully the quality of the chapter will be enough to make up for having you wait for so long.**

**One thing that I want to mention here is that I noticed a mistake that I made in Shido's description of him as Shiori. You see, the flower hair clip in his hair is supposed to be green and not light blue (it is even in the cover picture for this fanfic and I still messed it up, fail!). This detail has been fixed in the last chapter as well as I want to try and match his canon appearance as Shiroi from the anime and light novels as much as possible (yes, he had to do this in the light novels as well). Anyway, I just thought that I'd let you all be aware of this change. I may have to make more changes at some point if I feel like it needs it, though I'll let you know if I do.**

**Like last time, if there are any mistakes that I notice afterwards (or if there is a part that I'm not satisfied with for some reason), I'll be sure to go back and try to fix it as needed.**

**Now that that's put of the way, let us begin:**

**I do not own either Infinite Stratos or Date A Live (though I honestly wish I did). I only own the Technician (and her powers) and any other OCs that I may add later on.**

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As soon as the group was done eating their lunches, Ichika and the girls invited Shido to go do some IS training with them at one of the arenas. It didn't take much convincing as Shido was actually looking forward to trying out his IS. He wasn't completely sure how it was able to work for him (with him being a male and all), but it apparently had something to do with this IS being able to react with the manna that was stored up in his body from sealing away spirits' powers. It didn't make a lot of sense to him, but that wasn't important to him as he had other matters on his mind, like what to do when the spirit finally arrives.

After the group left the roof, they made their way to Arena 3 and the locker rooms. Ichika actually ran off ahead of the group in order to change quickly before Shido and the girls could get there (as there are only female locker rooms). As soon as the group made their way there, Ichika was already out of the locker room, sweating just a little in his training uniform from his rush. "Okay, it's all yours'!" he huffed out with his usual smiley demeanor. And with that, Shido and the girls entered the locker room to change, much to the some-what reluctance of the blue-haired cross dresser. He didn't want to risk the girls finding out what he is, and he also felt embarrassed at the prospect of seeing the girls changing. He wasn't a pervert after all. Luckily for him, he was able to grab a locker away from the girls so they couldn't see him change and vice versa.

After securing the locker, Shido quickly changed into his training uniform, which was custom made special to hide the fact that he was male, much like his IS Academy uniforms. This uniform is dark gray in color with blue trim. He also put on a pair of thigh-high leggings that match his training uniform, a pair of white sneakers, and a red braid to tie up his faux-long hair to keep it out of his face, though his bangs still hung down in front allowing him continue to wear the flower hair clip. After he had finished getting dressed, he made his way back over to the other girls, who had also finished getting dressed before they each headed out to the arena.

Once arriving in the arena, they were greeted by a waiting Ichika who was eager to start training. "Alright, now that we are all dressed, I guess we can get started," the dense male said to the rest of the group, "Hey Shiori, if you want to, you can go first. I'll even be your sparring partner if you want," Ichika also added, this time directed at Shido. At this, the girls in the group showed a slight hint of jealousy in their faces towards the "girl", though neither he nor Ichika actually noticed it. As the two sparing partners walked over to get into starting positions, Rin turned towards the other girls and whispered, "_Hey, I know that they just met, but does anyone else get the feeling that Ichika is getting a little too friendly with the new girl?_" At this the rest of the girls remained silent, and the group simply looked over at the sparing pair, each with a questioning glare on their faces.

As the two pilots were walking to their positions, Shido could hear a familiar voice in his ear once again, *****_**Shido, do you remember your training in how to use your IS?* **_his younger sister Kotori asked. "_Yeah, if you call that training._" Shido quietly replied, "_I just sat there while Tabane-san told me how it worked_, _and that's it_." _***Don't worry my stupid older brother. I've obviously never done it, but I doubt it's as difficult as you think. Besides, you won't be piloting it completely. We'll be in partial control of your IS from here as well, so don't worry too much***_ she replied with her usual confident grin. "_If you say so_," the blue-haired "girl" whispered with a sigh.

As soon as Shido and Ichika were in position in the center of the arena, they began deploying their IS's. Ichika activated his Byakushiki first, causing it to materialize around him. By now, Shido was basically used to seeing amazing things like this. Between the spirits and their powers and the AST and their combat realizers, so he should be used to this type of thing. However, that still didn't stop him from being amazed at the sight of Ichika's IS materializing before his eyes. Before he could get too lost in this sight though, he realized that he had to activate his IS as well in order for their match to begin. Luckily for him, Tabane did instruct him on how to activate it.

Doing as he was instructed to do, Shido quickly brushed his index and middle fingers across the front of his hair clip, causing his own IS, Seishin Herupa, to materialize around him. His IS was actually quite a sight to see. It looked similar to most IS's except that it was green in color with a bluish trim, except for the pair of metallic angel-like wings on the back, which were a darker shade of green than the rest of the IS. The head-piece looked exactly like the one from Tohka's Astral Dress, except in this case it was colored to match the rest of Shido's IS.

Unfortunately, Shido didn't even have time to take in his IS before they had to fly into the air in order for the fighting to begin. As soon as the pilots were both in the air, Ichika quickly deployed his signature Yukihira and got into his ready position. Shido, with a little guidance from the Fraxinus, immediately followed suit by deploying his own sword, Moeru Hikari, which resembled a cross between Tohka's Sandalphon and one of the AST-issued swords. No sooner that he did this did Ichika charge forward, swinging his Yukihira at his opponent, who was able to quickly dodge it in response. As soon as he was able to dodge it, Shido, acting on instinct that he didn't always show, charged in for his own attack with his Moeru Hikari. Unfortunately for Shido, this attack was easily blocked by Ichika's Yukihira.

Not wanting to be outdone, Ichika quickly struck again, this time almost catching Shido off guard from the speed of the strike. It might have even connected to his body had the Fraxinus not been quick enough to help him react in time with a quick block. This block was then turned immediately into an equally quick strike that actually connects and drains part of the Byakushiki's already partially drained shields. After a quick recovery from the attack, the dense male quickly retreated in order to try to regroup, knowing that he likely didn't have much power left in his shields, thanks in part to the Yukihira's shield leaching effect.

After a quick glance at his shield gauge, it was as he suspected; he only had enough shield energy left for one or two strikes left from his Yukihira without his remaining shield energy being completely depleted. He was actually a little surprised that his opponent could actually do as much damage to his shield with just a single hit. Regardless, he knew that his next attack had to count or it was all over.

With this in mind, Ichika quickly readied himself and charged in for the attack, this time activating his ignition boost to give himself more speed. Shido tried to block the attack, but the speed Ichika gained from his ignition boost prevented him from being able to do so in time, even with help from the crew of the Fraxinus. As soon as the attack connected, Shido's shield energy dropped almost immediately to zero, ending the match. As soon as he was able to recover from the hit, Shido let out a deep sigh, thankful that it was over. "Well, I guess you won Ichika!" Shido said with a slight laugh. "Yeah, it looks like it," the dense male replied with his usual smile.

_-Quick scene transition to the Fraxinus-_

"Shido may not have won, but we at least helped him make a good show it," Kotori said with her usual confident demeanor. "Agreed, if it wasn't for us, that battle would have ended a lot sooner," Reine calmly replied. "Well then…" Kotori started before she eyed Kyouhei starring at her, which resulted in her stomping hard on his foot, "…it looks like our job is done for now." Kotori stomping on her vice commander's foot caused him to jump slightly in the air with glee. However, instead of falling to the side like he would normally do, he instead fell forward onto Kotori's control panel, hitting one of the controls for Shido's IS. "…well, that can't end well," Kotori said with a sweat drop, a reaction similar to that shared by the rest of the crew.

-_Quick scene transition back to the IS arena_-

Ichika and Shido were about to head back to the ground and deactivate their IS's, when Shido's IS began to dematerialize for seemingly no reason. Before either Ichika or Shido could act appropriately towards this development, Shido began to fall towards the ground, screaming as he fell. "Oh crap…SHIORI!" Ichika yells and flies down after him. The girls on the sidelines witness this as well with shocked looks on their faces, and they deploy their own IS's in order to try and save him as well. However, before they can leave the ground, Ichika had already made his way to Shido, catching him in the process. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time for a safe landing, so Ichika, thinking quickly, rolled his IS on its back, shielding both Shido and himself from the fall.

The two pilots landed with a loud crash, forming a small crater on impact. When the dust settled, the two pilots could be found on top of each other; Ichika somehow finding himself on top despite the fact that he landed first, his IS also dematerialized. "Are you all right Shiori?" the dark-haired male asked after getting up a little bit, shaken slightly from the landing. "Yeah, I am. Thank you," the blue-haired cross dresser replied, shaken up as well; neither one of them having yet registered their awkward position.

Before the two pilots could do anything else, a laser blast flies past Ichika's head at a downward angle, hitting the ground nearby. After looking over to where the shot hit, the two simultaneously look back over to its origin, and see the girls with their IS's deployed, one of Cecilia's optical drones also deployed and floating near her. Each girl is starring daggers at the duo, each with a dark aura around them, visibly upset at the duo for being in such a compromising position. Both Ichika and Shido are simply deer in headlights for the time being due to their current situation, both unsure of what to do. After a few seconds, the girls almost in unison yell, "ICHIKA!" Realizing what is about to happen to them, both Ichika and Shido simultaneously scream, "OH CRAP!"

Not wanting either him or his companion to get hurt, Ichika quickly grabs Shido by the wrist, and jumps up, pulling Shido up with him. They then take off running with Ichika pulling Shido along, all while trying to avoid the various bullets and blasts being fired at them; neither male completely sure why the girls are shooting at them. Well, mostly in Ichika's case anyway.

* * *

**I have to say, that wasn't an easy chapter to write.**

**I hope that you enjoyed it, and that fight scene ended up turning out better than I think that it did. I'm not used to writing those so it's probably not my best work (the same could probably be said about the chapter as well), so forgive me if it's not that great. Hopefully I'll get better when/if I have to write another one.**

**I hope that people like the idea of Shido getting help from the crew of the Fraxinus in controlling his IS. The idea is actually from one of my readers. I'm not sure if they want me to mention them here or not, but if you do just let me know! Anyway, considering that Shido likely wouldn't know how to completely control it yet and that he has that resource available to him, it just makes sense to me, you know? Anyway, let me know what you think about it.**

**Also, I hope that you guys like the names that I gave Shido's IS and weapon. I'm not very creative or used to creating Japanese names, so you'll have to forgive me if they're not that great.**

**To answer a question that was asked real quick:**

**Q: "So how will you put the Yamai sisters and Miku into this story?"**

**A: Truthfully, I wasn't planning on including them in the beginning when I started writing this. I really only wanted to include the spirits from the first season and not the second season for simplicity's sake (that and when I started writing this I knew next to nothing about Miku or the Yamai twins). Now, I was thinking about possibly referencing them in the story, but not much more after that. However, after talking with someone about it, I've started to think about possibly expanding my story to include the spirits from season two as well in some way (possibly as actual characters). We'll see what happens about that though.**

**One last thing, I just want to point out that I'm not trying to create anything romantic between Ichika and Shido. I did that just for the comedy and to potentially set up for something else later. That is all!**

**Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed it! Be sure to review, favorite, follow, or whatever. All feedback is appreciated (just nothing flaming or too rude), thanks!**

**Until the next chapter (hopefully it won't take as long next time, lol!**


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